Getting things right takes a while.
It was the start of summer—
a tall man was sandblasting
his front door and sealing it
down; floodlit trees made
sorcerous sounds.
I like that we’re here,
enough that I would spend
the center of every summer here,
playing things by ear
until I am as gray as you,
and I thought
you have brought
such ease to my life.
Then I thought: best to remember
I am just a guest.
Click here to read Nathan Blansett on the origin of the poem.
Image by Josep Martins on unsplash.com, licensed under CC 2.0.
Nathan Blansett’s poems and criticism have recently appeared in Ploughshares, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Southern Review, American Chordata, and elsewhere. The recipient of fellowships and support from the 92Y, Poetry Society of America, the Stadler Center at Bucknell, Emory, and The Writing Seminars at Johns Hopkins, he currently lives in Washington, DC.
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